1. What is a notary?

Notaries are both civil servants of the Spanish system as well as Law professionals, dedicated to confirm the nature of a document or testimonies according to Law.

Therefore, once a document is validated and signed by a notary, such document will be fully legal and even decisive for trials, complaints, police report, registries, or any other legal procedure.

2. What does a notary do?

The type of final document produced by a notary is called “escritura pública” (public deeds).

These documents have a legal, authentic and executable nature, which don’t require any further validations, and are recognized and approved by all Spanish public entities, judges, as well as the entire Spanish society.

3. Mission of the notary

As described in the official Spanish notary website:

<< As a civil servant, the notary must stick strictly to the legality of any document, declaration or act that individuals require and check that the dealings wanted by both sides meet the requirements placed by the legal system. This monitoring of legality gives you the best guarantees and the absolute certainty that your contract or business is final, fixed and effective.

The notary has an obligation to provide legal advice, interpret, configure and authenticate the will of all participants involved with a legal agreement, giving special treatment to those who need more protection (article 147 of the Notary Regulations). >>

4. How do I get my document notarised?

It’s simple.

Choose a notary (see next section), and discuss with him/her which sort of procedure you need.

Once the final notary document is produced, you will get an attested copy (called “copia autorizada”). The original document that contains the signatures is kept at the notary office. Afterwards, this document will be sent to the corresponding Notary Department (Colegio Notarial and finally to the History Archive.

A notary document does not expire.

5. Which Spanish notary do I have to go to?

There are around 3000 notaries all over Spain, so you can choose the one that suits you, which is usually the nearest one, or the one somebody recommended you.

Click on this link and, on the right hand, you will find a box like the one in the picture below. Enter the name of the town you would like to find a notary in and click ‘Buscar’. The website will only display results if there are any notaries available there:

8. Comprehensive List of Notary Procedures

I’ve translated the following two key points straight from the Spanish Notary Official Website:

Private user

Leases

Pre-nuptial agreements

Buying and selling

Communication with the local authority about new estates that have been created or handed down

Constitution of easements

Constitution of usufructs and income

Declaration of intestate heirs

Declarations to the Register of Foreign Investments

Annulment of marital partnerships

Donations

Emancipation of children

Sending records to the registry of last wills

Creation of the registry of estates

Informing charitable entities who are recipients of endowments or inheritances that they do not know about

Inventory of goods

Inheritance statements

Protection measures for families with a disability

Protection measures for inheritances with burdens

Measures in the case of common-law relationships

Modification of the matrimonial property regime

Modifications made to estates

Paying succession taxes

Dividing inheritance

Powers and authorizations

Granting permits to immigrants for family reunification

Personal and mortgage loans

Family reunification

Child recognition

Amicable resolution of marriage crises

Holding part of the price of the sales that non-residents make

Holding companies

Non-residence applications

Wills

Business

Subscription control or stock purchase

Dissolution of companies

Company funding

Mergers, divisions and transformations

Management and urban development

Property leasing

Notifications to stockbroker firms from non-exchange transactions over listed securities

Constitution of limited and anonymous companies

Transfer of stocks and shares

Transfer of patents and trademarks

9. How to read a notary document

As the official Spanish notary website describes in this page, a notary document has three parts:

Introduction

This part contains the following information:

Place and date of deed

Name of the notary

Name, nationality, marital status and profession or occupation of the participants

The identity documents of the participants and other documents that the notary deems suitable.

The circumstance of bringing in a person to represent another, with a statement of the document that authorises it

The circumstance in which an interpreter must intervene, in the event that one of the participants does not speak the language that the deed is written in.

When there is intervention from someone brought by the participant or requested by the notary, in the event that the former is illiterate, blind, does not know how to sign a document, or if there is a circumstance which means that it becomes difficult to access the contents of the document or to communicate with the notary, all subject to them offering their fingerprints.

The notary’s faith in the capability, freedom and knowledge that the participants undertake.

Specifying whether the deed will be extended with notes or not.

Body

The statement of intent of the grantors, contained in minutes authorized by a lawyer, which will be inserted literally.

The supporting documents that prove representation, where necessary.

The documents that the participants wish to enclose.

The documents that are needed by legal requirement.

In the case of power of attorney, the literal transcriptions of the legal rules quoted, without indication of their contents, and refer to disposal or granting of powers.

Other documents that the notary may consider suitable.

Conclusion

There is the faith that the notary or the participants have chosen to read the deed.

Any confirmations, modifications or indications that the participants make should also be read.

Faith in the delivery of the goods that are stipulated in the legal act.

Literally transcribing legal rules, when in the body of the deed parts of the content have been cited without indicating in the contents and refer to disposal or granting of powers.

Transcribing any document that may be necessary and that may have been omitted from the deed.

The intervention of people who substitute others, by mandate, substitution or legal requirements, annotations that could seem marginalized.

The omissions by the notary’s discretion should be addressed in order to obtain the inscription of the legal acts, subject to the document, unnoticed by the participants.

Correcting any errors or omissions that they find in the deeds.

Consistency of serial numbers on the first and last pages of the document.

Enrolment of the participants and the notary, with an indication of the date where each of the grantors have signed, as well as concluding the signature process of the document.

10. How much does a notary document cost?

The price depends on the type of document generated. The best way to find out is asking at the notary office. Give them a ring or send them an email.

11. Our job as interpreters at the notary

If you don’t speak Spanish (or any other foreign language), then you will need an interpreter. This is not optional, as somebody will have to interpret the document for you and, most importantly, sign it.

The act of signing the document implies legal engagement from the interpreter’s side. This means that the interpreter could be legally responsible for interpreting misleading information.

Therefore, the role of the interpreter is essential at any procedure needing notary validation.

My recommendation is that you take with you a good, professional and experienced interpreter. They won’t leave out anything they don’t understand. At least I don’t. I make notes and go through everything with my clients.

Believe me, this is an important procedure. Don’t be like some people who will take any chance just to save a few Euros.